“Dayus, what did you do exactly to piss off Sam so much?”
Noah asked with a cheeky smile.
Dayus didn’t know what to say. But he didn’t dare reveal that he cheated.
“What else can there be? He is just being a sore loser.”
Kumar and Noah chuckled.
“Come on Dayus, who are we kidding? All of us know that he is way better loser than you are a winner. Just tell us what you did exactly. Otherwise, you are not going anywhere. I will take pissing you off over pissing Sam off any day. So, you better spill the beans now.”
“There is nothing to tell. I don’t know why that bastard is angry. Alright. Now get the fuck out of my way.”
Both Noah and Kumar frowned. This reaction of Dayus only made them all the more assured that something is indeed wrong.
They wanted to more details, but from the look of is Dayus is not going to give any. They exchanged a glance and silently left without extending the conversation.
Kumar and Noah went back to their camps and ordered their people to retreat, but instead of the beast carriages they used when they came here, they are all leaving by foot. As for the beast carriages, they are abandoned along with the beasts that were dragging them.
There is a reason for doing that and Dayus found out why, when he got the news that they are retreating.
He felt ecstatic and wanted to escape. But to his surprise, all the abandoned beasts are out of his camp. And it was not just Noah and Kumar who did it, even Arkiv did the same. And he even went a step further to leave behind some traps.
Some traps that are made up of a bunch of bows and arrows. All aimed at Dayus’ camp and his path of retreat. After the players left with their subordinates, they all sent a message to Sam using a beast, saying that they left and he can do whatever he wants.
And when Sam got the last letter from Donner, he made his move. He sat in the core of the formation. On the ground and he held the tapestry needles. He took a deep breath and looked at the sky.
“I am pretty sure you can hear what I saying Hel, so listen carefully. I am done with all of the shit that you have put me through since the start of this challenge, and I would like to make a statement against it.
Of course, you wouldn’t be taking my words seriously. No matter how many times I gave you the run for your money.
So, right now what I am about to do serves as a sneak peak at what more that I can do and will be doing in the future. And I have a few demands that I want you to uphold after this if you don’t want me to do what I can do.
Keep your eyes open.”
As soon as he spoke, spiritual energy roared in his surroundings like a tornado. His eyes started glowing with spiritual energy. The energy branched out and connected with the blankets and the formations.
The blankets started appearing. The energy rapidly spread as all the blankets and formations lit up. If one saw the formation from the sky, one would be in for an amazing sight. The blankets and the formations are so bright that it looked like some modern laser show in the middle of a forest.
It took four minutes for the whole valley to glow up with the blankets, threads, and the formations that are connected to them.
Dayus and his subordinates are all stuck. Before they could dissolve their formation, the beasts all bombarded them from all sides. Before they could even fend them off and run to retreat, they were hit by the traps.
Their retreat is slowed down and when they saw the whole forest around them glowing up with all the concentrated energy threads that surrounded them from different angles, they felt chills down their spine. Particularly Dayus.
The rest doesn’t know who Sam is and what he can do if he is really pissed. But he knows. He witnessed the destruction, the mayhem, the chaos he could create when he goes unhinged.
He just didn’t expect Sam would do something so drastic. The only thing he thought was that Sam is already in a pinch since he doesn’t have any badges from the first one and he also had so many setbacks in the second challenge.
Little does he know, Sam is not like Dayus.
He is anything but like Dayus. He has had enough.
Sam took a deep breath once again. And when he exhaled, a puff of spiritual energy came out of his mouth like smoke.
“Here goes nothing.”
Sam started moving his hands. The tapestry needles are connected with multiple energy threads. The threads that spread across the blankets all over the forest started intertwining. Each zone has different elemental energies and the first reactions are obviously at the zones near him.
The area with fire elemental energy, the place where Sam dealt with Noah’s subordinates is the first one to react.
All the vegetation in the area, including every single blade of grass, started burning. Whether they are dry or full of life, every single piece of vegetation started burning. The whole area glowed with fiery orange.
The fire is so fierce and full of rigor that the vegetation didn’t even last two seconds before everything turned into ashes. Soon, the rocks that are on the surface started melting, and the gravel on the ground also started melting.
The whole area turned into a pool of lava.
The heat seemed to have directly come from the purgatory itself. Every elemental energy in the area, whether it is wooden, earthen, water, or wind, of them turned into fire elemental energy. Even the natural neutral spiritual energy turned into fire elemental energy.
The space itself seemed to have turned into a zone of fire.
Next, the lightning area where Sam kicked Dayus’ subordinates’ asses.
The vegetation, rocks and all the other disintegrated. The spiritual energy that is holding the bonds of the grains of every single thing turned into blue lightning.
The same thing happened in an adjacent area. The wind’s elemental energy tore apart everything. All it has is grains of particles flying around like a tornado.
The dust storm looked like the manifestation of death itself.
As one area after another turned into zones of mayhem and death, Dayus and his subordinates could feel their doom approaching them.
The whole thick dark forest and the beasts that resided in it, all of them became nothing. The squeals of the mighty beasts could be heard as death swallowed them. Even their carcasses were not intact. They turned into grains of flesh and bone and disappeared with the rest of the chaos Sam created.
Before they knew it, death surrounded them. They saw lighting come from one side, a sandstorm from the other, fiery lava coming as a tsunami. Dayus looked at all of these and felt powerless.
An Astral Plane cultivator at his peak stage can make a city disappear with a swing of his spear, he can destroy a planet in a day if he so much as wills to do it. His mere presence with no restraints will cripple an entire generation of mortals.
But he felt like a little child that day.
A powerless, mortal child in front of god’s punishment that was cast as a judgment on him.
He has clashed with Sam many times. He tried to pull some random tricks, he had a lot of petty tricks up his sleeve the whole time. He tried to sabotage Sam. He tried to kill Sam. He felt jealous of Sam.
He always believed Sam is not better than him. He felt like he is just a step behind and he would easily catch up if he gets one proper opportunity and some luck that benefits him.
But that day as the lightning storm came at him, he could feel his heart and mind screaming at him.
The blue lightning that day turned into Sam’s face.
All this while, he felt like he is alive because Sam was unable to kill him, he though he was alive and well because he is Sam’s rival and enemy that Sam couldn’t easily defeat.
But that day, at that point, in that exact moment, he understood one thing. All this while, he has been living under Sam’s mercy.
He is at Sam’s disposal. His life and death are not in his control. Just like how Zeus had control over his life and death, Sam had that too. Sam had complete control over the life and death of Dayus all this while.
And maybe just a mere thought of Sam’s might have killed him. To think that Sam didn’t even bother to have that thought all this while, just gave him an idea of how pathetic and little his life meant to Sam.
His whole existence felt so small, so negligible.
